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Roseville police seek man charged with murder for role in motel overdose

UPDATE: Victor Wayne Lynch was arrested Feb. 10 at an apartment complex in Circle Pines. He was booked at the Ramsey County Jail and will appear in court the week of Feb. 13.

Following the overdose death of a 28-year-old woman in a Roseville motel room last October, police seek help finding the 50-year-old man charged with murder for his alleged role in her death

Victor Wayne Lynch was charged with two counts of unintentional murder for his involvement in the death of Trina Maurstad on Oct. 10 at the Red Roof Inn in the 2400 block of Prior Avenue.

Lynch, who lived at the motel and worked there as a maintenance man, is accused of preparing and injecting the mixture of methamphetamine and heroin that killed Maurstad. According to her obituary, Maurstad lived in White Bear Lake and had three sons.

On Feb. 7 the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office filed the charges against Lynch, who is currently not in custody. Each charge of third-degree murder related to selling/giving/distributing a controlled substance carries a maximum penalty of 25 years, a $40,000 fine, or both.

Emergency call

According to court documents, Roseville police were called to the Red Roof Inn near the interchange of Highway 36 and Interstate 35W the night of Oct. 10 on the report of a woman who was unconscious and not breathing.

She was in room 272, where Lynch lived, and he was in the room when police arrived.

Officers entered and saw drug paraphernalia, including a spoon with burned residue in it, and syringes, court documents state. Maurstad had track marks on her body, indicating drug use, and appeared to have overdosed.

First responders attempted to revive Maurstad with CPR and the drug Narcan, which can treat opioid overdoses, though those efforts were unsuccessful. She was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center where she died.

Court documents said an autopsy performed on Maurstad’s body found she died from a mixture of methamphetamine and heroin. A urine sample collected at the hospital before she died also showed she had the powerful opioid painkiller fentanyl in her system.

Following the initial call to the Red Roof Inn, Roseville police questioned Lynch and another unidentified woman who was in the room. Police have not released the name of the woman.

Court documents said both the woman and Lynch claimed they didn’t know that Maurstad had taken drugs that night and both said they had not taken drugs, either.

At that time, police searched Lynch’s phone and found video of him allegedly weighing a quarter ounce of heroin on an electronic scale in the presence of young children.

Change of story

After her initial questioning by police, the woman returned to the Roseville Police Department Oct. 13, because, according to court documents, “she wished to tell the truth about what happened on the evening that [Maurstad] overdosed.”

The woman told police she and Maurstad had shown up at the motel Oct. 9. Maurstad intended to get heroin from Lynch.

Through the course of the next 24 hours or so, the woman alleges Lynch mixed speed balls — a mixture of methamphetamine and heroin — and helped Maurstad to inject multiple speed balls into her arm.

The woman told police she was scared of Lynch, so instead of injecting herself, she would go into the bathroom and stash the syringes full of drugs into her purse, court documents say. She later turned her purse over to police.

The woman told police she warned Maurstad it was dangerous to let Lynch mix her drugs for her, since she wouldn’t know how strong the doses were. The woman and Maurstad stayed in the motel room the day of Oct. 10, court documents say, because Maurstad was incoherent from drugs.

That evening, the woman said, Maurstad began “locking up like she was seizing and grinding her teeth;” that’s when the woman said she called 911 for help.

The woman told police Lynch allegedly drove her home after their initial questioning and told her not to tell police he gave Maurstad drugs because he would go to prison.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension tested the syringes in the woman’s purse and found they contained a mixture of methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl.

Lynch has previous drug convictions from 2004 and 2010. He’s described as white, 5-feet, 10-inches tall and weighs 218 pounds. He’s bald and has hazel eyes.

Roseville police Lt. Lorne Rosand said if people encounter Lynch or know where he is, they should not approach him and instead call 911.

The need for Narcan

Rosand said all Roseville officers began carrying Narcan kits in late 2016 as a way to treat opioid overdoses

“We’ve seen more calls for service related to drug overdoses, specific to heroin, more now than ever before in our careers,” he said.

Narcan is a nasal-spray version of naloxone, which blocks the effects of opioids.